Fighting The Wrong Enemy

Posted on June 23, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

I read this morning in Mark 9:40, that whoever is not against us is for us. These are the very words of Jesus Christ but often forgotten by those that bear his name. We expend energy in fighting other believers and ignoring the real enemy.

Too often doctrinal litmus tests are developed to see who is in and who is not. We spend effort dividing over Bible translations, pet doctrines, music styles, dress style, building style and other non-essential issues.

The King James Only crowd think us reprobate because we read and teach from a “modern” translation. The reformed people have great sport bashing the dispensationalists. The dispensationalists retaliate with derision for reformed eschatology. The list of reasons to divide is seemingly endless. These are a few examples of the disputes within the community of those who take the Bible seriously and seek to live out what it says.

This post is not a plea to water down or soften or eliminate a hard stand on what the Bible says. We do not need to compromise what we believe. There are passages which speak directly to the issues of today and we need to uncompromisingly teach them.

There are groups which have beliefs that are clearly in conflict with Scripture, usually recognizing other “sacred” books which are necessary for understanding the Bible. We are not to compromise on doctrine, nor should we cease to point out the error in these false religions. Jesus is not saying that all interpretations of Scripture are equally valid.

I think that the point Jesus makes in this verse is that we are to concentrate on fighting the real enemy and stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone who is willing to join us in the battle, whether we agree with them on every doctrinal point or not.

My guess is that when the battle is finally over we will all find out that our own knowledge was incomplete and some of the people we bashed along the way had as much truth as we.

Anyone who is bringing people into relationship with Jesus Christ is our ally. Anyone who is pointing people to Scripture as the foundation for belief and practice is our friend. Those who are not against us are for us.

What do you think?

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

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As believers, we have a dual citizenship, we live in a country (or countries) but are also citizens of the Kingdom of God. We live in this tension every day. We live in this world but we also understand that this world is not all there is.

Dealing with apparent failure in apologetics

If some could witness the miracles of Jesus and remain unconvinced and unconverted, we would be foolish to think that everyone will respond to our presentation and defense of the Gospel. The will overrides the intellect when dealing with matters of faith and world view. If the lack of response is an indication of failure, it is a failure that Jesus also experienced.

From a long way off

While driving (I get to do a lot of driving) I recently listened to a sermon by Alistair Begg concerning the Prodigal Son as recorded in Luke 15. This prompted some thoughts so I stopped to record them. The thoughts have to do with the reaction of the father toward the ssonb

On the value of good preaching

We should expect our preacher to communicate to himself and to us the diagnosis that God makes upon our condition and the corrective action that God prescribes. We don’t need or want the preacher to interfere with this process by filtering out the inconvenient or disturbing bits.

What is sin?

It seems to me that even those who would not acknowledge the idea of sin still have feelings that they should be better than they are. Almost any sentence that begins with the words, “I ought . . .” would give evidence in support of this assertion.

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Fighting The Wrong Enemy

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